MUSIC: Global Pop, Space and Place

University of Iowa

Iowa City, Iowa, USA

International Association for the Study of Popular Music IASPM-US 2008 Conference

For many, popular music would, by definition, transcend any particular space, propelled by the technologies of mass media. Connecting every wired corner of the globe, today's digital media technologies – from mp3s and p2ps to Myspace and YouTube – would appear to amplify popular music's inherently translocal character. At the same time, popular music remains deeply entwined with significations of place, of home and away, town and country, here and there, black and white; and it remains shaped by real spaces and the changes that affect them. Popular genres and styles are nurtured and inflected in social spaces, and they enrich one's sense of place as they shape one's imagination of others. How is popular music shaped by, or how does it shape, social uses of space? Does popular music look and sound fundamentally different in an increasingly interconnected world? What happens to the notion of the popular in a peer-to-peer age? How does greater access to more music from farther away change our senses of our cities, regions, countries, selves, others? The conference program committee of the 2008 meeting of IASPM-US invites proposals for papers, panels, or roundtables relating to these questions and, of course, welcomes proposals on any aspect of popular music.

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